The Yugoslav communist leader, Tito, liberated
Yugoslavia from German control without help from Moscow. He argued with Stalin
and refused to take orders from Moscow. In 1948 Yugoslavia was expelled from
Cominform, the international grouping of communist parties.

The Soviet Union imposed a trade ban on
Yugoslavia but they survived due to support from the USA. Stalin dealt
ruthlessly with other East European countries between 1949 and 1953. He was
worried that they might try to copy Tito. Leading communists with independent
ideas were imprisoned or executed.

Turmoil in the Communist World after Stalin

• After Stalin's death in 1953 people in
Eastern Europe hoped for more freedom from Soviet control.

• The new Soviet leader, Khrushchev,
established friendly relations with Yugoslavia in 1955. Hungarians hoped to
copy Yugoslav independence.

• In 1956 unrest in Poland led to reforms and
concessions by the communist government. This encouraged Hungarians to demand
reforms.

The Hungarian Uprising

In October 1956 unrest in Hungary led to the
appointment of a new Prime Minister, the communist reformer, Imre Nagy. People
demanded that Hungary should leave the Warsaw Pact and become neutral. Nagy
agreed but in November 1956 Soviet troops invaded Hungary and imposed a new
pro-Soviet government. There was fierce street fighting in which thousands of
people were killed. Nagy was arrested and later executed. The USA did nothing
to help the Hungarians: people in the West were preoccupied with the Suez
crisis.

The Prague Spring

Economic problems caused unrest in
Czechoslovakia in 1967. A new communist leader, Dubcek, took power in January
1968. He introduced democratic reforms while remaining communist. In August
1968 Soviet troops invaded Czechoslovakia to end the reforms. Dubcek lost his
job in 1969 and a pro-Soviet government was put in place. Afterwards the Soviet
leader, Brezhnev, announced the Brezhnev Doctrine: the Soviet Union would use
force to keep communists in power in any country.

1956 and 1968 compared

• In both cases the Soviet Union used force to
end reforms in East European countries. New pro-Soviet governments were
imposed.

• The Hungarian government wanted to break
with the Soviet Union, leave the Warsaw Pact and become neutral. The
Czechoslovak government wanted much more democracy at home but promised to stay
in the Warsaw Pact.

• In both cases the USA did nothing to help.
The West was preoccupied with Suez in 1956 and Vietnam in 1968.

• The Hungarians fought against the Soviet
invasion thousands were killed. The Czechoslovak people offered non-violent
resistance. The Hungarian leader, Nagy, was executed; the Czechoslovak leader,
Dubcek, lost his job, but remained alive and free.

The Berlin Wall

Between 1958 and 1961 there was a dispute
between the Soviet Union and the USA over Berlin. The Soviet leader,
Khrushchev, said that Western forces should leave the city and that it should
become neutral. The US president, Eisenhower, was prepared to compromise but he
was replaced in 1961 by President Kennedy.

Kennedy refused to compromise and both leaders
publicly threatened war over Berlin. In 1961 the crisis was resolved. and the
threat of immediate war disappeared, when a wall was built around West Berlin
to stop East Germans fleeing the communist state.

Poland and the rise of Solidarity

Shipyard workers in Gdansk went on strike in
1980 in protest against rising prices. They were led by Lech Walesa and formed
a new non-communist trade union called Solidarity. Millions of workers joined
Solidarity. The Soviet government considered invading Poland in order to crush
the union.

To avoid this the Polish communist leader,
Jaruzelski, banned Solidarity in December 1981. He declared martial law and imprisoned
Solidarity leaders without trial but failed to destroy the union. Solidarity
did well in elections in 1989 and formed a non-communist government.

Soviet Communism in decline

The Soviet Union was in crisis by the early
1980s:

• The economy had failed to match the
economies of America and Western Europe.

• The arms race further reduced living
standards.

• There was widespread corruption.

• The Soviet Union was fighting a disastrous
war in Afghanistan.

The second Cold War

After the Vietnam War the USA pursued a policy
of detente with the Soviet Union. This involved peaceful co-existence and some
arms reductions. Ronald Reagan became president of the USA in 1981 and he ended
detente and began a new arms race with the USSR.

Gorbachev

Mikhail Gorbachev, a reformist communist, took
control in the Soviet Union in 1985. He wanted to improve the Soviet Union by
'perestroika' - 'restructuring' or reforming the economy and 'glasnost' -
greater 'openness' and freedom of speech. His reforms undermined the position
of old-style pro-Soviet leaders in other countries. He renounced the 'Brezhnev
Doctrine' of interference in other countries.

The whole of communist Europe was swept with
revolution in 1989. One by one, the communist authorities were overthrown. The
Soviet Union led by Gorbachev did nothing to stop this process. The Berlin Wall
was torn down in November 1989. In 1991 the Soviet Union fell apart. After a
failed communist coup in August, the republics that made up the USSR declared
their independence. Gorbachev resigned. Russia became a separate state ruled
over by Boris Yeltsin.